322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



which he draws from his own observation and experience in the best 

 schools in Europe. This is most valuable, as it offers guidance in 

 teaching ancient as well as modern languages from one thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with all the best methods. 



Mr. Ticknor resigned his professorship in 1835, after fifteen years 

 of uninterrupted service, during which time and for the remainder of 

 his life he exercised a generous but modest hospitality. Fortunate 

 and happy in his domestic relations, he gave a cordial welcome not only 

 to his old friends, whom he never forgot, such as Dr. Bigelow, James 

 Savage, William H. Prescott, not only to distinguished men of letters, 

 like Professor Felton and Mr. Hillard, and the Danas, but to men of 

 science, like Bowditch, Lyell, Agassiz, and the brothers Rogers, and to 

 worthy citizens and men of distmction in other walks of life, such as 

 Judge Story and Daniel Webster, thus doing what can best be done to 

 awaken sympathy and mutual respect between those engaged in sci- 

 ences, letters, business, and the affairs of state. 



After a residence in Europe of three years, understood to have been 

 principally occupied in collecting materials of every kind for his " His- 

 tory of Spanish Literature," he returned home, and, in 1849, that work 

 appeared, which Humboldt calls " a masterly work," and of which H. 

 T. Buckle says, " In it there is more real information than can be 

 found in any of the many Spanish histories I have had occasion to 

 read." This noble work stands alone ; most agreeable, instructive, and 

 entertaining, though upon a subject which, treated with less knowl- 

 edge, taste, and discrimination, has usually been found heavy and 

 tedious. 



In 1863, Mr. Ticknor gave us the life of his dearest, life-long friend, 

 William Hickling Prescott, — who, younger than himself, had once ex- 

 pressed the hope that it " might be long before he should do the good 

 turn for his friend Ticknor of writing his obituary." There is not, 

 perhaps, in any language, a biography more delightful, or containing 

 more precious, suggestive instruction for a young student, than Tick- 

 nor's " Life of Prescott." 



If untoward circumstances had not prevented the execution of his 

 own cherished purpose, we should now have, as a pendant to the Life 

 of Prescott, a life, by the same hand, of Daniel Webster. Of his 

 ability to do it in an incomparably perfect manner, we have not only 

 the evidence of the Life of Prescott, but we have his " Remarks on 

 the Life and Writings of Daniel Webster," which came out in a 



